Meet the Tennessee family behind the US Supreme Court's major transgender health care case
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/meet-the-tennessee-family-behind-the-us-supreme-court-s-major-transgender-health-care-case/ar-AA1uuRoG?ocid=windirect&cvid=578d89b54fed413aae1255820f6407b9&ei=52
Story by Melissa Brown (21 Nov 2024)
On a mild February evening in Nashville, a curly-haired teenager and her dad climbed the steps to the public gallery of the Tennessee Senate, where a group of lawmakers in the wood-paneled chamber below would, after a brief debate and the bang of a gavel, seize control of her family's medical decisions.
As they watched over the Senate's gilded railing last year, Tennessee Republicans voted to make it illegal for transgender youth to be prescribed certain medications and treatments used to treat gender dysphoria.
But on Dec. 4, she will climb another set of steps.
This time they'll lead to the U.S. Supreme Court, where her story sits at the center of a watershed legal case that could affect transgender youth medical treatment across the U.S.
Lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice and the ACLU will argue on Dec. 4 that the Tennessee law unconstitutionally violates the Equal Protection clause on sex discrimination.
The same treatments and medications Tennessee Republicans said are too dangerous for L are still available to L's classmates and other Tennessee youth – as long as they are not transgender or being treated for gender dysphoria.